For a large part of the world Easter is among the most important holidays of the year. We usually associate it with the Easter bunny, coloured eggs, cute baby chicks and leg of lamb dinners, but in fact, they have nothing to do with Christ’s resurrection. So where do they come from, and what really are the traditions behind Easter?
According to some Christian believes, early Christians stained eggs red in memory of the blood of Christ shed at his crucifixion. Later in 1610, Pope Paul V officially adopted the custom of colouring and eating eggs which symbolized resurrection. But the holiday has also pagan origins from pre-Christian times when people celebrated the arrival of the spring, the yearly time of renewal, when the nature renews itself after the long, cold winter. In many ancient cultures the egg symbolized the coming of new life, as with the notion, that the Earth itself was hatched from an egg, which appears in creation stories in many parts of the world.
In pre-Christian Europe the egg was a symbol of fertility and was used in many rituals to help a woman conceive a child. There are still parts of Europe where one particular custom has survived and is practiced to this day. Old women watch the rotation of an egg as it is suspended by a string over a pregnant woman’s abdomen. By the rotation they can predict the sex of the unborn child. There are many other rituals where the egg plays central role, but many scientists relate the symbolism of the egg and the bunny to 13th century Germany and one particular tradition.
The Teutonic deity Eostra (Oestre/ Eastre/ Ostara) was the goddess of the dawn and the spring, and of course, of fertility. She was believed to bring the end of winter and with it the flowering of plants, the birth of animals and human babies. The rabbit was her sacred animal, known for its rapid reproduction. Of course, the feasts and rituals to honor Eostra were held on the Vernal (March) Equinox, which is the official begging of the spring. And the Christians calculate Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox.
In many cultures colored eggs are exchanges as gifts on Easter and in some European countries, children go from house to house for eggs, much like Halloween trick or treat tradition. Of course, there is also the tradition of the Easter eggs hunt which is spread in the Western cultures.
